New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on Feb. 15, 2023) follows:

Google Chrome for Windows, Mac, and Linux has been updated to 110.0.5481.100, and it will be rolled out to everyone in the following days/weeks.

It includes several significant changes to the UI and other features, although some of them, such as the option to ‘Search Google for’ in Chrome’s right-click menu opening in the side panel, have not been well received by its users.

Google Chrome Search bar highlighted text color

Some Google Chrome users are displeased with the change made to the color of highlighted text in the Search bar after the recent update (1,2,3,4,5). Here’s a demonstration:

Unselected

Google Chrome Search bar highlighted text color change
Source (Click/tap to view)

Selected

Selected
Source (Click/tap to view)

Chrome users noticed that when they select text in the URL bar, it is no longer highlighted with a blue background. Instead, the color remains unchanged. This makes it harder for users to distinguish what they have highlighted.

This issue appears to occur even when users have no themes installed and also when the tab color is changed to black or a darker shade.

Chrome search bar highlights black when selected. The chrome search bar highlights black when selected, making it nearly transparent and very hard to see on dark themes. anyone know of a way to get the blue highlight text back?
Source

I assumed it was some sort of Valentine’s Day thing, but nobody else is experiencing the same thing. The ellipses in the address bar that turn up when searching stuff are red, too. It’s weird! I actually like the purple, but I’m worried about my poor innocent browser.
Source

Potential workaround

Fortunately, we have come across a potential workaround that involves changing the Window’s accent color to something ‘not too dark’. Follow these steps to do so:

1. Go into the “themes and related settings” (which you can easily find by just typing themes into the start menu)
2. From there click on the colors subsection of the settings
3. Halfway down that page you’ll find “choose your accent color”
Source

If you want to avoid using a light theme then all you need to do is reset your ‘Chrome flags’ settings:

1. Copy chrome://flags and paste it into your browser’s address bar.
2. Hit enter and select ‘reset all’ option
Source

Let us know in the comments down below if these workarounds help address the change in the color of highlighted text in Google Chrome search bar.

Having said that, we’ll monitor the situation and provide an update if and when there are any new developments surrounding the glitch.

Update 1 (Mar. 09, 2023)

06:34 pm (IST): One of our readers has suggested a workaround that can help restore the changed Google Chrome Search bar highlighted text color. It is as follows:

under that same area of windows settings, there is a check box that if unchecked seems to fix this problem entirely. change “Title bars and window borders” to off

Thanks for the tip: Clark Miller!

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PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.

Karanjot Sidhu
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